Chapter 4

"Do we know what cabin?"

"No, not yet. We thought you'd be interested to know though, so John's trying to discover that now. You have an idea as to who she is?"

"To be honest with you, Helen, there's only one person that I can think of that it could be. But her name isn't Christabelle and when I knew her, she wasn't a dancer. She left me to become a model."

"Left you?"

"Yeah, it's all a bit complicated really."

"Life's complicated, Duncan, whether we like it or not. But I'm surprised to hear you say that she dumped you. Doesn't make much sense that she's embarrassed to see you then. That's of course assuming that she doesn't think she made a mistake." Helen looked deep in thought for a few seconds. "That's unless she ripped you off all your cash or something."

"No, Helen, if anything Aileen contributed a good few thousand of her own money in our joint account that's still sitting there. She had other accounts though and plenty of modelling work; I can't understand what's she's doing running around this bleeding yacht almost naked, acting as eye candy for these bleeding perverts."

"Well, that girl did say that she's a dancer now and only filling in for some girls who are sick."

"Yeah, Aileen could dance alright. She was an accomplished ballerina when she was a kid. Her mother had hopes she'd go on to one of the top ballet schools; but it wasn't her thing she was too shy at the time. But, Christ, she did know how to shake that thing to get my juices flowing in private, if you understand me," I said smiling, actually picturing Aileen gyrating around in those tight blue jeans in my mind.

"I think I do, Duncan, but I'm not sure that we should go there." Helen grinned back at me. "Ah, here comes my loving husband. I wonder what he's discovered. I'm sorry if you think that we are nosy, but the pair of us love a bit of intrigue."

"Christ, there's a bleeding row going on back there," John whispered when he arrived beside us. "I saw that fat bugger in the shorts and one of the other girls going into a cabin, so I listened at the door. He was yelling at the girl telling her that if she wasn't on deck in the next five minutes she'd be out of a job and would have to find her own way back to London. I couldn't hear what she said in reply, then he stormed out of the cabin almost knocking me over on the way. Anyway once he'd gone I sneaked back to the door and I heard the other girl persuading her to come out; I think she's coming. Do you know who she is, Duncan?"

"Duncan is pretty sure it's an old girlfriend of his and her name is really Aileen," Helen said before I had a chance to speak.

"Oh, shit, of course. No wonder her face was familiar. Aileen Price! One of the guys was keen on her. Had pictures of her up all over his cell. Hey, she was going places in the model game. I wonder what she's doing here."

"We were wondering the same thing, John," Helen commented, but didn't say anymore because Aileen and the other girl had suddenly put in an appearance on deck.

Aileen was apparently still wearing that tiny flesh coloured bikini. But over it on her upper body she wore a white blouse tied just below her breasts and the lower portion of her anatomy was covered by a sarong.

Without a further word Helen set off in Aileen's direction. But before she got to Aileen the sleaze was giving her another lecture. I couldn't see Aileen's eyes or where they were looking because of the sunglasses she had on, but she was vigorously shaking her head. From his gestures it was apparent that the sleaze was not happy about the blouse or the sarong.

However at that instant Helen arrived and the words, "Fuck off, arsehole," if nothing else, were plainly audible to everyone on that deck.

"Looks like my wife is angry," John quietly commented to me. "It'll be interesting if that wanker argues with her. Helen's into all that marshal arts stuff; I wonder if that fat arsehole floats?" Then John Carpenter started laughing out loud.

The Sleaze looked like someone had smacked him around the face when Helen launched her tirade at him. For a moment he stood there staring back at Helen, then turned beetroot red and he walked away through the door that Aileen had come onto the deck by without saying another word.

Helen took Aileen's arm and steered her in our direction. Actually I should say dragged, because Aileen looked pretty reticent about coming with her.

They were by then the centre of attention for everyone on that deck, but I think Helen gave everyone watching a look that should have struck fear into the devil's heart and most folks found something else to show interest in.

"Christabelle - or should I say, Aileen, I'd like you to meet Duncan King, or as you probably know him, Warren Price. I think that you two have a lot that you need to talk about," Helen said, then leaning close so that only I could hear she whispered. "It's written all over your face, Duncan, so please don't mess things up this time?" I'm not sure what expression I had on my face, but Helen added. "She loves you, Duncan. Why do you think she was so embarrassed, when you came on board?"

"There's an upper deck up those stairs. It's a little more private. Why don't the pair of you nip up there and have a little chat?" John added pointing at a nearby companionway.

I held out my hand and surprisingly for me Aileen took it immediately, then I led her in the direction John had indicated.

"It's been a long time, Aileen," I said, trying to break the ice and after we'd both been sat on a bench on the upper deck for some considerable time, in silence.

"I'm sorry, you were right," she replied.

"About what?"

"About everything. About these things," Aileen gestured towards her breasts, "about that calendar shoot. About everything, Warren."

"I don't understand, Aileen."

She took her sunglasses off to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand; it was only then that I could see that she was crying. I fished a clean hanky from my pocket and handed it to her.

"I didn't need these bloody implants, Warren. You told me so many times, but I thought they'd make you love me more. What they did was to make me think that I was something special."

"You were always something special to me, Aileen. You had been from the moment I met you."

"I realise that now, Warren. I realised it whilst I was on that shoot in Jamaica. You were right; there were all kinds of bloody perverts climbing trees hoping to catch a glimpse of the girls in the nude. I refused to strip off and they threw me off the set."

"I got a reputation as being awkward after that, because I demanded private changing rooms and would only allow the photographer to be in the studio if I was naked. I still got work for a while but it became obvious that I wasn't going anywhere. So when my roommate Heather said they wanted another dancer for her troop I joined them. It's mostly disco stuff and backing dancers for pop groups, but I was short of cash and it pays the rent."

"Aileen, you have at least six thousand in our joint bank account. If you needed cash why didn't you take that?"

Aileen gave me a strange look. "That was your money for the cottage, Duncan. It was all theoretically spent before I left."

"At the moment, Aileen, I'm a very successful author, thanks to you. I haven't had to touch that account since you..."

"I'm sorry, it all went to my head. Everyone seemed to think that I was the greatest thing to hit the modelling world since I don't know when. I'm sorry, I didn't think that I needed you holding me back; I thought I knew it all. But why thank me for being a successful author?"

"Because you taught my how to put heart and soul into my stories. I had no idea what love was all about until I met you, Aileen."

Aileen looked me in the eyes. "I've had a few men since we broke up, Warren. Not many, I promise you, but I've never found what we had with any of them."

"There's been a few women in my life as well, Aileen. Oh, I keep it low profile, but I'm not as celibate as the newspapers like to suggest. It just surrounds Duncan King with a bit of mystery."

She smiled again. "So where do we go from here?"

"I don't know, Aileen. If you're interested, we could see if there's anything left..."